white bass fishing | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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DAD, I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!! — 126 FISH

December 2nd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, I fished with Brian Linford of El Paso, TX, and his “homeless” father, Larry Linford, who is weighing his options after selling his home in Idaho Falls, ID, and is considering becoming at least a winter-Texas given that his adult kids all live down this way.

The two were visiting relatives in the Belton area and decided to give Lake Belton a try. Larry hadn’t done much white bass fishing before, and Brian was eager to see how I put sonar, in particular the GARMIN LiveScope, into practice in a “real-world” fish-finding scenario.

After seeing what he saw, but knowing his wife would not be wild about the possibility of another sonar purchase, Brian considered his alternatives and informed Larry, “Dad, I know what I want for Christmas.” Larry just laughed.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From right: Larry and Brian Linford with a few of the 3-year class fish from our haul of 126 fish taken from Lake Belton on MAL Lures this morning in advance of a dry cold front which came in around 1PM.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 02 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

It was a pretty crazy weather day today which resulting in me having to postpone my afternoon outing due to forecast high winds.

We had a mild, dry cold front approaching from the NW, but this morning’s trip did not coincide with the pre-frontal wind shift in advance of that front, so, we had enjoyable conditions, but pretty average fishing. We were aided by light, grey cloud cover, but hindered by a lack of wind.

When the wind blew, the activity level of the fish rose noticeably, but, the opposite was also true.

We put our 100th fish in the boat today right at 11:20, the, because I had already made a call to postpone the afternoon trip and was under no time constraints, we hit an area I haven’t fished in a while to scout it out a bit. I found fish in about 35′ on bottom, and we fished them until they quit, putting a “bonus” 26 fish in the boat and taking our final tally to 126 fish.

In that mix was 1 freshwater drum, 2 smallmouth bass, 8 largemouth bass, and 115 white bass. No hybrid striped bass in the mix this morning.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 126 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No gull activity today after a 4-day run of solid bird action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 0.87 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SE breeze at trip’s start, then just short stints of light breezes from the SW thereafter in the hours immediately preceding the arrival of yet another mild, dry cold front which started with a northerly wind around 1P, and which led to the postponement of this afternoon’s trip due to high forecast winds (18, gusting 25)

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning with occasional mist, as well as occasional, brief breaks of sun through the clouds.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 96% illumination

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1483; 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1489; 21 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 354; 34 on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0051G; 31 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 579; 25 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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IT’S A CRIME TO PAY MORE THAN A DIME – 100 FISH @ BELTON

December 1st, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: If you’ve ever heard the phrase “It’s a crime to pay more than a dime.” — you were most likely listening to a McLeod Auto Sales radio commercial.

This morning, Tuesday, December 1st, I fished with returning guest Travis McLeod, co-owner, along with his wife, Diane, of McLeod Auto Sales at 1601 E. Rancier Ave. in Killeen.

The McLeods have been in business for over 20 years selling used cars. To take a break from that from time to time, Travis likes to get out and do some hunting and fishing. Today, he braved some pretty tough weather to pursue white bass and sharpen up his own game on this abundant gamefish species on Lake Belton so as to be able to treat his own family, namely his grandkids, to some similar fishing.

Although we both enjoyed the catching, Travis also came to pick my brain a bit about tactics and sonar use. He came away with a few valuable lessons, namely, that he’s likely been looking too shallow in his autumn fishing, and too dependent on the down-looking technologies of down-imaging and colored sonar, while not making full use of his side imaging on his own Humminbird Helix unit.

Travis is a well-traveled hunter and in that arena I picked up a tip or two from him, namely that I need to set aside time to go to the Dallas Safari Club’s Convention and Sporting Expo held annually in Dallas.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Travis McLeod with one of several hybrid striped bass we took from about 40 feet of water as we focused on white bass using a combination of MAL Lures and Garmin LiveScope.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 01 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After a sweet run of fishing for very aggressive fish spurred on by frontal activity this past Saturday and again yesterday, things settled back down to more normal conditions today as a southerly wind returned overnight after a very short post-frontal calm just at and after sunset last night.

Under these conditions, fish feed, but not for extended periods. Fish chase, but not for extra long distances, and the energy they exhibit is generally less than when a rapid change of atmospheric pressure is taking place.

Today we wound up fishing 4 general locations, short-hopping a bit at the first three to keep up with the fish (under birds), to put together our catch of exactly 100 fish. By 10:30, the winds, which were forecast to max out a 13 mph straight-line, actually rose to 16-17, with higher gusts. It was such that we vacated open water for our last hour and fished more protected (but still wind-impacted) water.

Until we hit our last area, our ratio of young of the year fish to legal fish was very low, but, of the last 20 we landed, approx. 17 were shorts. Regardless of size, it sure is fun to work individual fish while peering into the depths below with the LiveScope technology.

We ended up with exactly 100 fish caught this morning, including 3 hybrid stripers, 4 largemouth, and 93 white bass, with one big drum missed right at boatside which did not go on the “clicker” to be counted.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 2.5 hours worth of solid gull activity in the middle part of this morning’s trip. First “killing” frost of the year occurred overnight.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation: 0.86 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12 at trip’s start, ramping up to S16 with higher gusts to 20+ by 10:30A

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover at ~20% on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0098C; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 086 to 1551; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1391; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 844; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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NO PET BUFFALOS – 105 FISH

July 30th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, 29 July, I fished Lake Belton with two young lady anglers — Lils and Zoey Haberer, accompanied and assisted by their mom, Emily, and their grandfather, Steve Niemeier.

Zoey is 5 years of age, and Lils is 8.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: That’s Emily and little Zoey with a buffalo nearly as long as Zoey is tall!

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Lils Haberer with an 11th hour largemouth we picked up downrigging after causing havoc for the local sunfish population for over 2 solid hours.

WHEN WE FISHED: 29 July, 2020, AM

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

HOW WE FISHED: With girls so young, I had a fairly limited amount of time to find some “easy” fish before they became disinterested. In a scenario nearly identical to the day before, although our forecast called for SW winds, we actually had ESE winds during that critical low-light time from just before sunrise to just after it during which much shallow water topwater feeding typically takes place. That easterly wind just seems to put the brakes on the topwater bite. We actually spotted fewer suspended fish than the day before, and saw no early topwater fish at all this morning. After patrolling, looking, and downrigging a bit, by the 1-hour mark we’d managed to lose 2 young of the year white bass (which were all of about 4″ long), and land another.

I decided at that point that we needed to provide some “instant gratification”, so, we headed up shallow and proceeded to put a hurt on the local sunfish population.

Over the next 2.25 hours, the girls landed exactly 102 sunfish, including bluegill, green, and longear sunfish. Lils was ably assisted by Steve, and Zoey was coached by her mom. This was just the ticket to refocus the girls after a very slow start.

By the time the second area we fished for sunfish played out, we were right around the 3.5 hour mark and Zoey had just about played out, and I suspected Lils wasn’t too far behind. I suggested that we give downrigging just one more try to see if we couldn’t end the day with some larger fish.

Since the girls could move around and snack while we downrigged, and because this was a change of pace from the sunfishing, that suggestion went over well.

We put in all of about 20 minutes’ worth of downrigging during which time Lils came up with a nice largemouth bass — her largest fish of the trip. Not to be outdone, Zoey (with much help from Emily, or perhaps it was the other way around), landed a 16.00-pound smallmouth buffalo.

The whole boat erupted in cheering when the fish was secured in the net. We revived the fish, took some photos, and released it. It was then that Emily noticed Zoey was pouting up in the front of the boat with her head down.

When asked what was the matter, she shared with her mom that she wanted to take the buffalo home as a pet and was therefore very sad that we had released it.

Besides that, we had a good trip even if the white bass weren’t cooperative.

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The presence of an easterly wind these past two mornings has just killed the low-light bite. After the sun gets up and the wind starts to move the water, occasional “popcorn” schools of briefly appearing whites could be seen for just seconds at a time out in open water.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 1.35′ low, 0.06′ 24-hour change, 54 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE6-7 during the first 2 hours, shifting to SE thereafter.

Moon Phase: First Quarter Moon +2 (a.k.a. waxing gibbous moon)

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1583 and B0158C for sunfish

**Area vic 1604 for light action on downriggers late in the AM

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

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1st FISH OF THE A.M. = 1st FISH OF HIS LIFE

July 19th, 2020July 19th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday, July 18th, I fished with Clint Tippett and his two young sons, Carter (age 7) and Carson (age 5). We attempted to make this event happen last year, but dates didn’t work out. Then, again in February we tried to set something up for March and COVID saw to it that those plans were foiled. So, the third time was a charm this morning.

This trip was specifically focused on the boys’ success, so Clint, an anesthesiologist at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, helped me help them.

Prior to this morning’s trip, Carson had never landed a fish, and Carter only had a handful to his credit.

PHOTO CAPTION: 5-year-old Carson Tippett proudly displays the first fish of his life, a Stillhouse Hollow white bass landed just after sunrise while downrigging in deep water.

PHOTO CAPTION: 7-year-old Carter Tippett with the largest of the 50 fish we landed today. This white bass fell for a Pet Spoon – one of three presented simultaneously on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

WHEN WE FISHED: 18 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Clint and I spoke by phone the evening before this trip (which was originally just to include Carter) and agreed that Carson would join us. I laid out what to expect based on my experience in fishing with kids this age and in this season of the year.

We planned to fish for white bass early on when the kids’ attention span and enthusiasm level was high, then move on to fishing up shallow for more cooperative and abundant sunfish later in the morning.

These plans worked out pretty well. The white bass action was more subdued this morning than over the past few trips, but the boys both landed 4 white bass a piece, included Carson’s very first fish ever, thus earning him a TPWD First Fish Award. By around 8:15, the deep action on white bass was waning, and so we retooled and headed up shallow.

All of these white bass came on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons. At no time did I see a congregation of white bass which I felt warranted stopping to work vertically for.

We made two stops up in shallow water specifically targeting sunfish. We landed 36 sunfish at our first stop, then made a tally of 50 fish (which would require each boy catch 3 more fish) our goal at our final sunfish stop. The boys handily met that goal and, now at the 3.5 hour mark, dad and I knew it was time to wrap up before the boys got too (choose any combination): hot, bored, hungry, irritable, whiny, distracted, etc. Thus, we ended on a good note with the boys landing roughly equal numbers of fish.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile at depth:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.9′ low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 87F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6 at sunrise, increasing to SSE12 by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moving to a new moon on 20 July

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 062 thru SH0031G – serpentine downrigging pattern for deep white bass in lower third of water column

**Area 200 and 189 – sunfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

FISH SATURDAY … GET MARRIED MONDAY — 40 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

July 12th, 2020July 12th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, July 11th, I fished with returning guest Shawn Leverington who has been out with me twice before. Accompanying Shawn this go-round were his sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Matt Todd, as well as his soon-to-be father-in-law, Mike Carroll.

Shawn is to be wed this coming Monday to his fiancee, Kelly, in an evening ceremony at the Dead Fish Grill on Lake Belton, so family from both sides have come to town for the event. Sarah, a teacher, and Matt, a federal fire fighter, drove down from Wisconsin, and Mike, a estate planning attorney, came in from Austin.

Shawn is a U.S. Army Reservist working full-time at Fort Hood as commander of the Warrior Transition Unit there. The WTU’s stated mission is to provide command and control, primary care, and case management for soldiers in transition to establish conditions for healing and to promote the timely return to the force or transition to continue serving the nation as a veteran in their community.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sarah and Matt Todd, Mike Carroll, and Shawn Leverington

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! 3 fish on the 3-armed umbrella rig simultaneously.

WHEN WE FISHED: 11 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: After experiencing just so-so fishing on Belton yesterday morning, and given that I expected a heavy weekend crowd there, I fished with Shawn and crew on Stillhouse today and was glad we made that call.

Summer fishing is always a challenge, but, thanks to some wind from the SSW, we did alright today. The bite started just as the sun cleared the eastern horizon and went strong until around 8:15, after which fishing slowed dramatically.

As has been the case for the last few weeks, and will be the case for weeks to come, we found and caught fish on the downriggers, which allowed us to cover ground with sonar and to cash in on the occasional “patch” of bottom-hugging fish via vertical jigging with MAL lures. The ‘riggers were equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs rigged with Pet Spoons.

We actually gave vertical work a try before our first downrigger run this morning, as I saw a nice 50-60 fish school right on bottom in water just over 45 feet, but, it was still pretty dark down there and we just couldn’t get them excited. We stopped to work vertically about 5 times this morning, catching fish on two of those pauses.

We witnessed no topwater action today, which was not surprising, as there was next to zero cloud cover.

We finished our morning right around 10:30 with 39 white bass and 1 largemouth landed.

TALLY: 40 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No clouds, no topwater action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.57′ low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7 +/- 1 mph all morning

Moon Phase: Last day of the waning gibbous, moving into the last quarter moon tomorrow.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0030G to SH0031G to SH0032G – downrigging and vertical work

**Area vic 878 – downrigging

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

WE WORKED FOR ‘EM TODAY — 27 FISH @ BELTON

July 10th, 2020July 11th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, July 10th, I fished Billy Champlin of Killeen, TX, and his father-in-law, Tom Estes, of Florence, TX. Billy’s wife, Teri, put the trip together as a Fathers’ Day gift to the both of them.

Billy serves as a TPWD Lieutenant Game Warden here in Central Texas and has been in law enforcement off the pavement for over 20 years now.

Tom retired from the quarry/stone business and just this year began a post-retirement job of substitute teaching in Florence’s public schools.

Both fellows had fished a good bit previously.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tom Estes and his son-in-law, Billy Champlin, with a few of the white bass we worked to catch from Lake Belton this morning.

WHEN WE FISHED: 10 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was tough today. We had lightly whitecapping waves (w/ a ~13 mph wind) prior to sunrise and no cloud cover for about 90 minutes. The wind relented a bit and broken white cloud cover built in as the morning progressed. There was no topwater action in the areas I searched during the key topwater time right before, during, and just after sunrise.

We wound up covering a lot of water today with downriggers, encountering small schools of white bass with roughly 20-30 fish in each school. These schools were typically 2-6 feet off bottom but were not carpeting the bottom, rather, they were “balled up” and appeared similar to shad when they form into bait balls, except the individual fish in the school were clearly visible, especially on Garmin DownVu.

On a number of occasions (probably 9 or 10) we saw excellent sonar returns, pulled the downrigging gear in quickly and circled back to Spot-Lock on top of the fish we’d seen, only to find them a) gone, b) present but in lower numbers than we first encountered, or c) unenthusiastic. Over the course of our trip, we only landed 3 or 4 by fishing vertically.

Around 8:30 I noticed some light topwater action fueled by white bass chasing very large shad (4+ inches) over about a three-quarter acre area. We tried pinning these fish down to fish for them, but they were in very small, splintered groups and moving quickly. After failing to catch any by patiently waiting for a boil and sight-casting, we again tried a vertical approach resulting in 1 fish, and then went back to downrigging to cover water, and picked up another 4 fish this way. Covering water was the key for these moving fish.

TALLY: 27 fish caught and released, including 26 white bass & 1 freshwater drum

OBSERVATIONS: Only sporadic topwater action under a waning gibbous moon as we just passed full and are heading into the new moon which will occur on 20 July.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.05′ low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind Speed & Direction: S13 +/- 1 mph all morning

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0025G to B0026G – downrigged with some success after keying on sporadic, light topwater

**Area 1975 to 687 – downrigging

**Area vic -1604 downrigging

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

HE’S A TEN — 54 FISH @ BELTON

July 7th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 7th, I fished yet again with Mr. Larry Brewer of Georgetown, accompanied by his life-long friend, Blake Hoekstra, and Larry’s 15-year-old grandson, Eymon McCormick.

Eymon heads into his sophomore year in high school at the end of the summer. His visit with Larry and Mrs. Brewer has included varied activities, including driver’s education provided by Grandpa Larry.

When I asked Eymon where, on a scale of 1 to 10, he felt he currently fell in terms of his preparedness to drive, he promptly relied, “I’m a 10.” Larry reminded him that Grandma Brewer still rated him at a minus 10, thus the average is zero. Driver’s ed. continues …

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Larry Brewer, Larry’s grandson, 15-year-old Eymon McCormick, and Blake Hoekstra with a half-dozen of the 54 fish we managed on a morning made tough by turbulent weather.

WHEN WE FISHED: 07 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Bottom line this morning: we had to work for ’em. Thanks to very turbulent weather, we had all manner of sky conditions and light levels this morning see-sawing back and forth and never consistent for more than 20 minutes or so.

Our best run of fish came from 7:00 to 8:00 when, under completely grey skies, we downrigged and consistently pulled fish and, while doing so, noted three sizeable schools of white bass which came up on top and stayed put for perhaps 12 minutes, allowing us a quick 16 white bass, all eager to take a Hot Bite Gang Banger G2.

Around 8:15, a storm cell moved in from the west and dumped rain on the Ft. Hood training area to the west of Lake Belton, but only brought sprinkles our way. During the entire, roughly 50-minute event with gloomy, dark skies and light drizzle, we managed only 2 fish.

Once the storm cell moved east, the skies got bright quickly, the atmosphere warmed, and we began to see signs of life again, included approximately 7 schools of white bass which fed at the surface just briefly within 100 yards of the area we’d chosen to downrig in. We managed consistent downrigging action here, taking a number of singles and one double, before the wind picked up, the skies greyed again, and the fishing slumped once more.

From 10:20 to 11:15, yet another clearing, warming window occurred in advance of a significant line of storms which moved in from the north and dropped rain from 1 to 4 pm. During this “window” of clearing, warming weather, we encountered another good feed, this time after most of the boats which showed this morning had already packed it up.

As we fished in ~26 feet of water after stopping in the area when Garmin down-imaging revealed a nice, bottom-oriented school of fish spread over a ~20 yard area, we took our fish count from 38 fish up to 54. These fish were all 1- and 2-year fish and were all taken on MAL lures used with a smoking tactic.

TALLY: 54 fish caught and released, including 52 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 1 crappie

OBSERVATIONS: As is typical for summertime fishing, we really had to hustle to get the boat positioned and lures down to the fish once we found some bottom-hugging whites, as these fish would not stay put very long. Beating the water definitely aided in reigniting fish interest and in drawing and keeping them under the boat.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F and quite humid

Elevation: 0.42′ low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind Speed & Direction: S10 +/- 2 mph all morning

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1606 to 181 – early downrigging

**Area 1799 to 1702 to 1791 – downrigging leading to topwater action

**Area B0024G to 099 – downrigging with moderate success

**Area B0023G – MAL’s produced a final 15 fish from a bottom-hugging school in ~26-28′

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

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ON THE EDGE OF TOPWATER TIME — 60 FISH

July 5th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, July 3rd, I fished with first-time guests Todd Roach and Jason Walrath, both of Salado. Todd works as a chiropractor in Killeen, and Jason, after recently retiring from the U.S. Army as an aviation officer, is now a pilot for United Airlines.

We pursued white bass on Stillhouse Hollow both because the fishing has been solid, and so as to avoid the holiday crowd on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Todd Roach (left) and Jason Walrath put 60 fish over the gunwales this past July 3rd via a combination of downrigging and vertical work.

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With fairly stable wind, weather, and water conditions each day now for well over 2 weeks, the fishing has settled into a predictable summer pattern. All the action is above the thermocline which is set up around 35 feet in the upper 2/3rds of the lake, and deeper in the main basin.

The tactic which put fish in the boat for us this morning was to find (and catch) fish with the downriggers and then stop atop strong groups of bottom-oriented fish to work vertically for them.

The action started early today, with the strongest bite and most active fish up off bottom and up ~4-5 feet in the water column between 6:40AM and 7:50AM.

We found that the cooperative schools of fish hugging bottom which responded to our vertical tactics did not stay put long. Once the fish cleared sonar, we moved, as these fish did not hold in the area, nor did they circulate back underneath the boat, despite efforts at thumping and beating on the water to draw them in and keep them there.

I noted today that the fish we encountered also seemed to be in smaller, more splintered groups. By 9:15, the fish were clearly already on their way to shutting down. For every 4 or 5 schools of fish we encountered, each with 20-40 fish per school, we’d only get one school jazzed enough to pursue baits, and even then would only get 1-3 fish out of that school.

I used a combination of #12 and #13 Pet Spoons on my 3-armed umbrella rigs today, and the fish definitely showed a preference for the slightly larger #13s. For the vertical work, we used MAL lures.

TALLY: 60 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Although not to the extent encountered on Wednesday under a better wind and cloud cover scenario, each location giving up white bass this morning also had, “schoolie” largemouth bass popping shad on the surface, as well. I’m anticipating the topwater action to really come on strong over the next few weeks — very exciting!

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.22′ low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW5 increasing to SSW11 by trip’s end with occasional gusts to 13

GT = 22

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas v1423, v062, v1708, and v1146

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday